One of the most "inside baseball" books I've ever read, but if you are also an insider in the romantasy genre, this book is SCREAMINGLY funny and really touching at the same time. The shippers don't get fed a full meal in this first volume, but I enjoyed feasting on the appetizers! I'm so happy to see Sarah Rees Brennan making her adult debut, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the sequel.

This book is definitely for the people who have always wanted to be with the villain, not the hero. The beginning was a little hard to get through, but after that sailing is a little smoother. Keep in mind this book is also a bit of a comedy and it has many laugh out loud moments. It definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously! This book was definitely meta with some camp vibes thrown in.

😈LONG LIVE EVIL gives fanfic vibes in the best way, and takes both the MC and the reader on an adventure with plenty of laughs, high stakes, and meta-commentary on the fantasy genre😈

Rae's in hospital, weak, and angry about the hand life has dealt her when she's given a chance to live by going into her favourite book series. Rae, sick of being sick, enters the fantasy world where she wakes up as Rahella, calculating seductress and evil stepsister of beautiful MC Lia, who's set to be executed. Rae has to change the story to allow herself, and her new character, the chance to live. Only, while this is her fave series, she's forgotten most of book one. She figures she remembers enough to piece everything together to complete her task and return to the real world healthy and alive, surely with no problems at all….

Long Live Evil is a fun adventure with an undercurrent of anger with the world. Parts of this are likely drawn from the author's own experience with cancer, and makes it that much more poignant. Rae is angry about being sick, her body failing her, her friends abandoning her, and how she's been deemed not important or worthy due to being ill. This anger also translates to the fantasy world, with even starker notions of the patriarchy and women as only valuable when fitting specific stereotypes. There are many tongue-in-cheek remarks about the fantasy genre, women, villains, and how society treats those who don't fit certain molds. Having previously read and loved In Other Lands, this meta-commentary on genre and real-world issues within the narrative of a fantasy book is something Sarah Rees Brennan does extremely well. It never feels like a lecture or becomes too heavy-handed, it's instead woven into the book seamlessly and with humour.

Another interesting motif centers around humanity, personhood, and agency. Long Live Evil touches upon the notion of reality and what makes someone human and worthy of life in the "real world" and also with Rae initially seeing everyone in the book as characters and expendable, but throughout her journey her views become more complex.

There are A LOT of characters and plot points in this book within a book. Characters with names as well as monikers, and sometimes titles, and it can get confusing to keep track of everyone. It also means that we don't get to fully know everyone because there just isn't enough pages, which is sometimes a bit of a shame because there are some great characters. Which brings me to an important point:

Long Live Evil is book 1 in a series, and it ends on a cliffhanger which I only learned upon finishing the book. I had thought there'd be some resolution, and that this was a standalone, but that isn't the case. Fortunately, this means we'll get to dive deeper into the world and learn more about all the characters, but it was definitely a surprise to me, as I didn't feel like this was made clear from the blurb and marketing

That said, I had a great time with this book and I can't wait for the sequel!

Thanks to Orbit, and Netgalley for the ARC. Long Live Evil is out July 30

My actual rating is 3.75, rounded up to 4 stars. I’ll be honest, I saw the cover and title of this one and clicked ‘request’ without actually reading anything else about this book. So I was not entirely prepared for a ‘story inside the story’ kind of situation , and I definitely think this threw me off a little bit and kept me from getting super invested early on in the book. That being said, I did manage to find my footing around 20% of the way in, and, hyper-modern pop culture references aside, did end up enjoying myself. My biggest problem with this book is that really I found the main main character a bit off-putting. I liked many of the other characters more than her, including some who I felt were severely underutilized. Despite its flaws, I was intrigued by this world and this story and I will definitely be picking up the next installment of this series. Hopefully either the main character gets more likable or I get more page time with the other characters I like!

The rating:
4/5 stars

The summary:
Rae has cancer, and she's dying. Luckily, she gets a chance to step into the actual world of her favorite fantasy series and grab a magical healing flower that only blooms once a year. Unluckily, she enters said world in the body of the evil, seductive step-sister of the pure and innocent heroine. But that's just fine with Rae — she'll lean into being the villain if it means that she can get what she wants. But by the time she's done gathering her found family of misfits, making self-sacrificing moves and generally messing with the narrative, will she even be the biggest villain of all?

The vibes:
Metatextual narrative, contemporary protagonist in an epic fantasy world, cancer, found family, villains out to do the right thing, gore and violence, minimal spice, redefining archetypes.

The review:
While this read a little more YA than I expected, there were so many clever meta moments of self-awareness from both the author and the deliciously lovable characters that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Add to that a found family of debauched misfits, sly references to pop culture and musicals, and an evil protagonist with a wardrobe to DIE for, and I was fully bought in! The fact that the author's own experience with cancer influenced Rae's story was also deeply moving. The last 25% of the book really sold this for me, and I'm excited for the next installment!

This book intentionally unravels traditional fantasy character tropes. Rahela is the sexy, “loose” woman to foil the virtuous main character, dismissed because of the way she looks - but she doesn’t die expendably when she’s supposed to, and saves more people than she harms. Lia is the pure, sensitive ingenue - but she’s using it as a front to manipulate the situation to get what she wants (power). Key is the hot, snarky assassin love interest - but actually, he can turn on you with a flip of a coin, and the fact that he can murder people without a thought should have been alarming. Marius is the hero, the warrior under vows of no harm - but he’ll abandon that, and the heroine, and the greater good, for the sake of one person. Cobra - well, Cobra’s about what he appears to be (both his public image and his private dealings), but he did that intentionally. (Cobra was my favorite character, easily.)

I found this book a bit difficult to get into, given the sheer amount of information given upfront - both about Rae’s real-world situation and the events and characters within the book - and the abrupt transition to the world of the book, but it did eventually it its stride, and I had a good time with it. I love Sarah Rees Brennan’s books for many reasons, and one of them is the sarcastic, unique writing style that I find hilarious, and this book sure delivers in that regard! Moreover, a lot of the plot events themselves are objectively hilarious as well (I’m thinking about Rae and Cobra’s song-and-dance number particularly).

I am curious about the sequel(s) - I thought this book was set up as a standalone. I’m curious how it/they can keep the tone or tenor of the first book instead of becoming just “fantasy world” now that connection to the real world, apart from the basic fact of Rae and Cobra’s presence, has been pretty much severed. Since she missed her flower window, Rae cannot go back to her own body in her own life, which drove her this whole time and set her apart from the other characters. There will be no more interaction with her sister Alice. Rae’s powers as “prophet” within the story are diminished - the events have diverged significantly from what she knew, and the main characters will not act like how they acted in the book even if confronted with those events.

Thematically, I do think there is a setup for sequels. As with Brennan’s other books that I have read (especially In Other Lands, which also deals with the concept of “real world character in fantasy world”), the themes are strong, especially around the nature of stories and the power you have within them. I see space for that to continue and evolve, especially given Rae’s new position within it (i.e., this is her home now, rather than something she will eventually leave) and the arc she completed this book (everyone here is real, too). There are a few comments about her “ruining” or “breaking” the story, especially towards the end, and I’m eyeing that as a potential concept to circle back to (something about how a story is a neutral concept, and how things happen as they happen).

There has been a large hole in my fantasy world for an isekai story and Long Live Evil has done wonders to fill that. We meet Rae and in her eyes she as at her bottom - suffering from late stage cancer and living in the hospital while her sister Alice reads to her from her favorite book series. A book series where Rae's favorite character was always the murderous and vicious emperor so she did not pay as much attention to all the details. One night after her sister has left Rae is offered a chance to save herself - she enters the world of Throne of Iron and get the only appears once a year Flower of Life and Death as it blooms. The problem is when Rae arrives she is in the place of the villainous evil stepsister of the heroine who is set to be executed the very next day.

She bounds into this world spewing prophecy and modern idioms that confound and anger many around her. Rae formulates a team with a maid with a reputation for betrayal and a guard who finds murder fun. They are able to evade at least one execution before descending further into the story where Rae meets the Cobra who has little interest in Rae's willingness to change the plot but will help out if she helps his two favorites get together.

I found that Rae did not have much room to grow in this space and she was quite similar at the end as she was at the beginning. She was able to adapt more to the world but even at the start we know that Rae cared about her sister so helping her fictional character self's stepsister was not shocking.

I will say Key and Marius were two of my favorites in the world of this story and I am looking forward to see where their journeys continue as this series progresses.

Thank you to Orbits Books and NetGalley for an eARC copy of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan.

I have always been a fan of messy female characters, and this book directly appealed to that for me. All the characters are complex, well-fleshed out, and incredibly villainous in all the best ways, and the world of Eyam comes to life in them. This book was one of the most fun I've ever read.

Coming into this book, I was delightfully surprised by just how funny this book was, especially the chapters from Rae's POV, she has such incredible Voice that really makes you feel like you can relate to her. However, as the story progressed I found myself, beyond just laughing at jokes and enjoying the commentary on the Romantasy genre and fandom interpretations, more and more engrossed in the world of Eyam and the story unfolding around our villainous band of characters. Subverting every expectation in a masterful understanding of the genre, I found myself fully in love with the story by the end of the book (especially after that cliffhanger!), and I can't wait for the sequel.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the Romantasy genre and wish to find something that defies and subverts all expectations that they may have, as well as anyone who, like myself, is a fan of wonderfully messy and complicated women. It was truly a delight to see the villainess take the stage in all her evil glory.

The tl;dr: Light and quippy on the surface, but with a darkness lingering in its depths, Long Live Evil is a terrific epic fantasy with some pretty cool plot twists thrown throughout. Part portal fantasy, part satire, and part exploration of good and evil, Long Live Evil works both as a humerous tale and a genuinely exciting epic fantasy with a couple dashes of romance (including some queer rep!). More please!

It seems that one of the major trends this year are satirical fantasies about being trying to become villains (i.e. How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, Dreadful), and Long Live Evil by Sara Rees Brennan is just the latest in this minor phenomenon. I've now read all of the major new releases, and I think that Long Live Evil is by far my favorite entry because it has so many more nuanced layers than just the straight comedy/satire. Rees puts a lot more respect into building out this world, and taking all of the characters seriously amongst the farce. Long Live Evil seems less of a satire of the fantasy genre, and more of a portal fantasy that wears its heart and its humor on its sleeve.

Long Live Evil follows Rae, a young woman dying of cancer when a mysterious woman offers her an opportunity - she can be healed if she is willing to be transported to the world of her favorite fantasy book series. She agrees, inhabiting the body of the wickedly evil stepsister from the novels. She sets out on one final quest - can she change the story so that evil wins?

While the marketing of this book emphasizes the "chronically online and hip" satirical elements of the book (the tagline is literally "She's in her villain era"), you can see from just the first sentence of my quick summary that this book emerges out of some DARK and HEAVY places. (Note: make sure to read the author's note at the end about how this book about the author's own struggles with cancer). Unlike "How to Become the Dark Lor" and "Dreadful", Rae plays up the villaianess role because of her pent up anger and frustration. She's mad because she was always talked about as less pretty and popular than her sister; she's mad that the universe gave her terminal cancer before she even reached her early twenties. Being the villain is her way to enjoy life the fullest and finally lash out at the world around her. If you go into this book seeking pure fun, you'll likely bounce off the book within the first few pages.

Amidst the darkness, the book does make sure to bring a lot of heart and levity. Like with many comedy-fantasy books, the humor is either going to work for you or it is not. Of the three major "satirical portal fantasies", I found this one to be the funniest. Yes, sometimes the humor descends into the book version of that Steve Buschemi "How do you do fellow kids" meme, but otherwise the humor works (or at least doesn't completely detract from the book).

The humor works here for a couple of reasons. First, Rees Brennan doesn't just satirize the wonky internal logic of many fantasy worlds, but also lovingly pokes fun at being a fantasy book reader. Rae has a leg up in this fantasy world - she has read the books and knows the plot. Well, kind of. Her sister summarized the first book her and she read the rest....meaning she doesn't quite have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the events she is living through. Rees Brennan cracks a lot of jokes about being the reader, rather than being a writer, and I really enjoyed that humor. One of the biggest throughlines through the book is how we often romanticize characters in books that we would utterly LOATHE in real life. We excuse the actions of fictional characters because they are attractive, or because the author TOLD us that they are the good guys (despite how many heinous things they do on the quest for "good"). Amongst the jokes, Rees Brennan asks her readers whether this is ok, or whether is just encourages problematic behavior.

The other reason the humor works is becaue Rees Brennan takes this fantasy world seriously. Most fantasy satires are all about mocking fantasy worlds, and showing how absolutely absurd they and the people who inhabit them are. The worlds and their inhabitants only exist to be the butt of the joke. That is not the case in Long Live Evil. Yes, there are some jokes about how stupid some things are, but the characters in this world are imbued with humanity and depth. They all start out as your standard epic fantasy archetypes, since Rae's favorite fantasy series is essentially made up of one trope after another, but they gradually develop into three-dimensional characters, breaking out of their respective molds.

Therefore, while there are jokes, there is also a genuinely engaging epic fantasy plot that is more than just window=dressing for the satire.

Light and quippy on the surface, but with a darkness lingering in its depths, Long Live Evil is a terrific epic fantasy with some pretty cool plot twists thrown throughout. This book is being marketed to fantasy romance readers on Booktok, but at the end of the day I cannot help but think that this might be a better fit for the "lighter" side of Joe Abercrombie audience. Goodreads claims this is book one in a series, but I wouldn't mind if we were left with the wonderful open-ending of this book.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ • 5

From the cover and summary alone I was pretty confident that I would at least like this book, and turns out… I absolutely adored it. The story flips between being comedic and serious unexpectedly and all of the characters were written really well.

The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, despite the foreshadowing so naturally I now need the yet-to-be announcement sequel like I need oxygen… But aside from that, loved it. This book will definitely be living rent free in my head until I can find out what happens next.

Long Live Evil is for anyone who loves those villainess isekai webcomics and has gotten tired of stories following along common tropes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review!

If this doesn't become a nominee for Goodreads choice awards I will RIOT.

Buckle up everyone, and let me introduce you to a bookworms dream : what if you could escape your absolutely wreck of a life by going into your favourite fantasy book, as the character more suited to you, and executing the simple quest of stealing a magical flower that appears only once a year?

Rae, the girl dying from cancer, lonely and in constant pain thinks she knows exactly what could happen. She would steal the flower successfully, wake up from the coma her real body on earth is currently on, and go on to live her life as she had before the illness. I mean after all her sister Alice, who is obsessed with the book she has been transported in, has been discussing it and reading aloud to her constantly!

Except.... Rae has not been paying close attention to the details, details that play key (hah my favourite character of the book reference!) Role to the way the plot unravels. Except Rae wakes up as the villainous vixen of the story, Lady Rahaela, a classic evil, seducing stepsister to the pure oh so beautiful and innocent heroine. Except Lady Rahaela is about to be executed first thing in the morning after Rae has just gotten into the story. Now Rae has to save the villain from the execution through allying herself with other evil characters of the book, proving that evil does win in the end


Mrs Brennan has crafted a wonderful story. Poking fun at overdone character archetypes, giving characters heroes and villains alike so much depth, critisizing the publishing industry, and throwing in sprinkles of pop culture references that had me cackling.


Okay now that I've covered all that we can finally talk about my favourite thing in the story.


THE ROMANCE. I'm not gonna say as much as I wish to as to not spoil but. Id die for the main couple. Nah, screw that, I'm in my villain era after this, ID KILL FOR THEM. Delicious, amazing, 10/10 romance plot that had me begging on my knees for more. I'm not ashamed to admit, the romance is exactly what got me HOOKED. I kept screenshoting, highlighting and giggling at all the banter.

Overall? While it did take me a while to get into the story once I was in I WAS INNNN. I can't believe the ending left off that I mean. Mrs Sarah have some mercy for my poor soul?? I'm going to go so berserk when the sequel comes out.

I am, admittedly, a stan of Brennan's. She wrote possibly my favorite book ever, and this new project is a wonderful evolution for her. Brennan has always asked audiences to stay with her through plot and character choices that feel uncomfortable, and this book is very much that. Long live the evil queen.

Thank you to Orbits Books and NetGalley for an eARC copy of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan.

First, I have to say, you need to read the acknowledgement at the end. Especially because it really portrays Sarah Rees Brennan's real life struggles and tears at your heart just as much as the story itself does.

This was certainly the book I needed to read at this moment in time. Long Live Evil is the campy, character chooses their own adventure and I 100% loved every moment as it occurred. It is certainly a fun book where honestly, the characters make the entire story and the whole book is a mood. It follows the story of Rae, who loosing her battle with cancer and spends her time listening to her younger sister read her favorite book. However, she gets offered the chance to win her battle by becoming the villain in her favorite fantasy book and plotting her survival to get the Flower of Life and Death.

I will say that the plot in places were messy, some plot hole and things that could have been explained better or smoothed over a bit. But, the plot isn't really the most important aspect in my opinion. The characters and their choices drive every second, from Rae and the Golden Cobra's experience with the physical novel (which always seems to be changing) and the kind of fourth wall breaking of their bickering of how the story should go or how it went. The world morphing to Rae's choices and just not going the way things should be at all. It resonated and the villain finally gets the spotlight she deserves.

You're just going to have a lot of fun reading Long Live Evil.

I'm extremely happy to find out that this will be a series, because SRB literally killed me with how the book left off and I cannot wait to get a physical copy to reread to find the little details I missed the first time around.

Long Live Evil is a comical and slightly dark take on the “regular person thrust into a fantasy world” trope and I am here for it. The main character, Rae, is a young woman dying of cancer who is approached by a mysterious woman that offers her the chance to live by becoming a character in her favorite fantasy series. Rae agrees to the terms and wakes up as one of the villains, Rahela, in the fictional story. Thus, Rae makes the decision to lean into her villainous role in order to stay alive.

The beginning of the story felt like it gave off very strong A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995 film) vibes. There were a lot of jokes and pop culture references made by Rae as Rahela in the beginning of the story that added to the levity the character feels at the beginning, but as the story progresses the pop culture references occur less and less. As the story progresses the author tackles themes of misogyny that often feed the plots of many fantasy series, and sheds light on the kind of characters readers choose as favorites.

In my opinion, the characters Brennan crafted were masterful for this type of book. Rae as a main character was artfully multilayered, and the storybook characters had a depth to them that I did not expect. While the plot drove the characters, it was the characters’ decisions and understandings that moved the story along. I was initially thrown off when I realized this was told through multiple POVs, but having the story told by someone from our world and then by two characters of the fictional story she was thrust into was a great new concept for me.

The only two issues I had throughout the book was in the way flashbacks were written and the confusing references to how Brennan weaves in knowledge of the fictional series into the book. The flashbacks were woven into the story in a way that often confused me on whether the characters were remembering a past event or if that was currently happening. This may not be an issue for other readers but I was left confused and rereading whole pages to verify what timeframe the characters were recalling. Also, with the way Brennan has Rae reference the fictional series is confusing as it often left me wondering if there was a whole series I should have read before this, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker and became more clear by the end of the book.

Overall, I loved this book and will recommend it to others who enjoy this trope. The story delved deeper into real life heartache, and what it means to be the person who is not typically rescued. It made me think about how my story will be told after I’m gone. I think this was a great debut adult fantasy novel, even if the author did leave the story off on a very typical YA cliffhanger. All I have to say is there had better be a second book!

Thank you to Sarah Rees Brennan, Orbit Books, and NetGalley for a copy of this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book was not for me.

I chose not to finish this ARC after completing about 8% of this book. While I knew immediately the diction itself was not to my tastes (sentences were choppy and not incredibly descriptive), I continued on to test if the story itself held my interest. This novel did not seem accessible or enticing due to some of the following issues:

- Rae's inner monologue read quite juvenile and not appropriate for someone at 20 years old
- Once we had entered the fantasy world, continuing plot points were laid out almost exclusively through dialogue between characters. This was unnecessarily lengthy, and also became repetitive after it was spoken about and then executed.
- It was extremely difficult to understand and link the "fantasy names" and the characters themselves. Each character in the fantasy universe also had a nickname, and I did not feel like there was enough description of who those characters were. As we moved forward, it was not explained again, and I found it impossible to remember their importance as we met, remembered, and described multiple characters at once.

The premise of this book was unique and piqued my interest, but unfortunately the hurdle of the book's beginning was insurmountable to me as a reader. I hope that other readers are able to continue on and enjoy this cool premise!

This is the hardest and most conflicted review and rating I have ever given a book.

The first third is jarring, disjointed and you speed through characters and plot points at breakneck speed. Yet the first bit was also a slog to wade through. It was hard to like Rae at first as it’s hard to connect to with a character made to remind you that they are just characters in a book. I kept having to force myself to pick it up as I received this free as an ARC and wanted to give it at least 1/3 for a fair chance.

Then, even though I still saw every reveal and twist, things changed. The Cobra was my favorite and I looked forward to every scene with him. Then the complexities of Rae’s feelings and fighting for a chance at life made me root for her success. By the end, I inhaling the book, not wanting to stop reading.

Do I think this is a fantastic five star book? No. But gosh it was the most fun I’ve had reading in a while. It reminded me of how I feel about romances, good fun book candy. And it’s pretty great to find that in a fantasy book that doesn’t take itself seriously while also reminding you how encompassing a good book can be.

I really wanted to like "Long Live Evil". On paper, this was the sort of story that I should have found to be interesting, or at the very least, funny. The truth is, the humor didn't capture me, the characters weren't engaging, and while I didn't mind the overall premise, it fell woefully short of where it could have landed. This book, in short, simply wasn't made for me, and that's okay! I hope other people have a better time reading it.

RATING: 5/5 STARS

SLOW CLAP FOR SARAH REES BRENNAN...

This is an all-around spectacular book. Insert clichés about being speechless, blown away, etc, etc - those superlatives were MADE for LONG LIVE EVIL, okay?! IT IS THAT GOOD!!

WHY THIS BOOK IS FOREVER ON MY FANTASY FAVORITE SHELF AND WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT (a vague and spoiler-free review because you should jump in without knowing too much):

1. THE CHARACTERS are campy and unpredictable, but also have incredible depth in their backstories. Their villainy is complex and brought up several poignant themes - how righteousness changes in the face of desperation, how privilege and social class influence one's trajectory, how kindness (and in contrast, cruelty) can have a ripple effect, how some events are seemingly fated and others altered at crossroads, how perspective changes in the face of illness and catastrophe... There was a lot layered in these characters.

2. THE HUMOR hits! I loved how irreverent and anachronistic this book was. The dialogue was a blend of modern and period and it just worked. There were a lot of lines that I chuckled at because they were silly and unexpected - who doesn't want some comedic relief from time to time? Life is too short to read dull books. The banter and zingers were kooky and kept me on my toes! I really enjoyed them.

3. THE PLOT requires some investment up front like a lot of good fantasy books but it paid off (just trust me, my lips are sealed beyond that)! And I was never bored. I thought the alternating POVs were well placed and I was interested in every character's storyline. They each had their secrets, and I loved the reveals and development of each character. The isekai/transmigration plot was really well done here... the meaning of being a "character" and the blur between reality and fiction were so creatively explored as part of the heroine's moral dilemma. So meta and very unique.

4. THE ROMANCES were on point!! Those of you who skim reviews to see if there is romance - I see you, and I am you. There are several romantic plots in this book, and they were not what I expected, which was so intriguing. There were some slow burn and enemies-to-lovers threads going on which satisfied me in this book but also left A LOT more to explore in the rest of the series.

5. THE AUTHOR'S NOTE at the end of the book - make sure to read it after finishing. The context and inspirations for this story are very special.

Give this book a try if you like fantasy and want to spend some highly entertained hours that make you think and puzzle out what happens next!

LONG LIFE EVIL ends with a bang, and I need the sequel ASAP.

Um wow okay so! this is a book! with words and sentences!! and definitely some characters and a plot. yep! sure is!!!

So look, I personally am not into millennial, meta, ‘BIG BOOBS OMG!’ kind of humor. but some people are and I hope THEY find this book and are able to enjoy it in all of its…glory?

the FMC definitely had some potential but I couldn’t get over the cartoonishly horrific dialogue. she walks into the story and proclaims ‘let’s do evil!’ and then things just work out for her? so that’s…cool
I wish I liked this because I obviously requested it and wanted to read it but I am most certainly not the right audience, I hope you are though!!

If Descendants and Inkheart had a baby, I think the result would be this book. Filled to the brim with evil plots, wicked one-liners, and excellent worldbuilding, Long Live Evil is a fun read for those who always fall for the villains of the story. Readers should know that this book deals with themes of cancer and death - though the majority of this aspect remains in the beginning, details about the main character's struggle with cancer and chemotherapy are spread throughout the story.
I will say that the characters lack some complexity. Each character embodies one major characteristic, and they don't really stray from that. Rae immediately accepted the role of the villain and was easily able to create plots and schemes that always worked out in her favor, which was a bit unconvincing. It would have been interesting to see her struggle with her choices - for example, she had no problem placing the characters in the book over her own family members in the real world. However, Rae was an interesting main character and I loved the side characters - I can't wait to read more about them in the next installment.
The beginning of the book was fairly chaotic - there was a lot happening and it took a little while for me to separate the details and understand exactly what was going on in the story. However, once the details were explained and the plot began to progress. the story became easier to understand and enjoy. The worldbuilding was really interesting, but I would have liked to learn more about the world of the book. The writing was also really atmospheric and set the scene really nicely. I wasn't a huge fan of the constant slang, though, and the presence of sunglasses in a medieval fantasy land didn't jive with the rest of the story.
Overall, Long Live Evil was an extremely fun read perfect for those who always wanted to go into the world of their favorite book. The ending was absolutely electrifying, and I can't wait to see where the story goes next. Readers won't want to miss this newest book from a talented author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit books for the digital ARC!